Mental disorders do not exist

To say that a person should have a right to consider himself mentally ill and to take a drug is one thing. This is an argument from the principle of individual freedom.

To say that such a person knows what he is doing by some objective standard is quite another thing.

Objectively speaking, mental illnesses and disorders do not exist.

Officially, all mental disorders are said to be chemical imbalances in the brain. Not just any imbalances, but specific ones. This is assertion is unproven. There is no evidence for it.

For example, for any of the 297 so-called mental disorders listed in the official publication of the American Psychiatric Association, there are no defining physical tests. No blood tests, no urine tests, no saliva tests, no laboratory tests of any kind.

Since it is a fact, it is odd that all psychiatrists are medical doctors. What are they doing that is medical?

Well, they are prescribing drugs. Yes. But I could prescribe drugs if I had a license to do so and a prescription pad.

The profession of psychiatry asserts that these drugs erase or alleviate “the brain chemical imbalances” that form the basis for all mental disorders. Yet the brain-imbalance hypothesis is unproven. It may “make sense” to some people, but that doesn’t constitute evidence.

People, of course, are free to believe the brain-chemical-imbalance hypothesis is true. Belief doesn’t make it true.

People are also free to believe the hypothesis that strange behavior emanates from the Devil or a Karmic curse.

A person says, “I was diagnosed with clinical depression and I took Prozac, and ever since then I’ve felt much happier.”

Yes. Fine. I have no interest in challenging that statement. I merely point out that there are people who have felt depressed and took a crystal they claimed was sacred, rubbed it on their heads, and felt better from then on.

There are people who have joined a church and prayed and felt better.

Why is the Prozac experience more compelling than crystals or prayer?

I’m not talking about what a person says makes him feel better. I’m talking about what psychiatrists claim is science. And when you scratch the surface of that, you come up with: no compelling evidence.

Yet, in courts and in doctors’ offices and at academic conferences and in the pages of professional journals and in political gulags, the science of discrete and separate and definable mental disorders is treated as settled, confirmed, verified, certain. That is a baldfaced lie.

All 297 official mental disorders, listed in the (DSM) publication of the American Psychiatric Association, are defined and approved by committees of psychiatrists. Whether it is schizophrenia or autism or ADHD or clinical depression or bipolar disease, the definitions consist wholly of described behaviors. That’s all.

Psychiatrists will tell you these symptomatic behaviors are signs of underlying chemical imbalances or genetic aberrations, but again, they have no tests to back up this assertion. Therefore, all they left with are the behaviors and their own menu-like collections of those behaviors.

Yes, people suffer in life, and they experience confusion and doubt. They have problems. They have trouble with relationships. They feel sad. They feel all sorts of things. They feel pain. They don’t know how to move ahead with plans. They sometimes feel their lives are at an impasse. Yes.

This is far different from claiming they have a specific and detectable chemical imbalance which can be tested for.

“Well,” many psychiatrists say, “the hypothesis of chemical balance is confirmed if the drugs work, because the drugs are, in fact, based on the idea that chemical imbalances underlie mental disorders.”

Let’s examine that approach. Take, for example, Ritalin.

The 1994 Textbook of Psychiatry, published by the American Psychiatric Press, contains this review (Popper and Steingard): “Stimulants [such as Ritalin] do not produce lasting improvements in aggressivity, conduct disorder, criminality, education achievement, job functioning, marital relationships, or long-term adjustment.”

Not a ringing endorsement.

How about, say, the antidepressants prescribed to children?

A shocking review-study published in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases (1996, v.184, no.2), written by Rhoda L. Fisher and Seymour Fisher, called “Antidepressants for Children,” concludes: “Despite unanimous literature of double-blind studies indicating that antidepressants are no more effective than placebos in treating depression in children and adolescents, such medications continue to be in wide use.”

Here is a link to the official psychiatric definition of autism disorder. It’s worth reading:

Notice that all the criteria for a diagnosis are behavioral. There is no mention of laboratory tests or test results. There is no definitive mention of chemical imbalance or genetic factors.

Despite public-relations statements issued by doctors and researchers, they have no laboratory findings to establish or confirm a diagnosis.

But, people say, this makes no sense, because children do, in fact, withdraw from the world, stop speaking, throw sudden tantrums. Common sense seems to dictate that these behaviors stem from serious neurological problems.

What could cause the behaviors listed in the official definition of autism disorder: vaccine injury; a head injury in an accident; ingestion of a neurological poison; an environmental chemical; a severe nutritional deficit; perhaps the emotional devastation accompanying the death of a parent…

However, in that case, why bother to call it “autism?” Why not just say vaccine injury or head injury? The answer should be clear. By establishing a label like autism, medical drugs can be sold. Studies can be funded. An industry can be created.

In fact, when it comes to the US government’s compensation program for parents whose children have suffered vaccine injury, the government can engage in a con game. The government can say, “In order to establish a cause for autism, we must find a single underlying factor that applies to all cases of autism. Since we know that some children who are diagnosed with autism have not received vaccines, or have not received vaccines containing a neurological poison (mercury), we do not compensate parents whose children are vaccine-injured on the basis that they have autism.”

But, of course, what is called autism (merely a label) is not one condition caused by one factor. It is a loose collection of behaviors that are caused by various traumas.

The official mental disorder called autism disorder does not exist.

People find such statements very unsettling. They argue, “My child’s life was stolen away from him. He must have autism.”

This proves that a label provides some measure of relief for the parents. It doesn’t prove that the label actually means something. In fact, the label can be a diversion from knowledge that would actually help the child. Suppose, for example, that after receiving the DPT vaccine, the child went into a screaming fit and then withdrew from the world. Calling that autism tends to put the parents and the child in the medical system, where there is no effective treatment. Outside that system, there might be some hope with vaccine detox or, say, hyperbaric oxygen treatments.

What is stated here about autism applies to all 297 official mental disorders. They are labels. There is no reason to suppose that, for each label, there is a single cause. There is no reason to suppose that the labels name actual conditions. Research that attempts to find a single cause for a label stands no better chance of succeeding than research designed to prove a man on the moon is selling land leases to citizens of Fiji.

Again, people have every right to believe they have been helped by a psychiatric diagnosis and a prescribed drug. But they also have the right to reject that paradigm and seek knowledge and help elsewhere. The whole thrust of official psychiatry and its allies is to monopolize their self-appointed territory and use all necessary means to eliminate the competition. This approach has nothing to do with science. It has everything to do with profit and fascist control.

The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

Thousands of people are being driven into the psychiatry/bigParma trap that don’t fall under any other categories you’ve listed. I know, I’m one of them. I’m a targeted individual. My life has been systematically ruined,leaving me jobless, without a car, a home. Targets are under constant surveillance, victims of psychologicalmanipulation (gas lighting) and harassment by ‘community watch’ organizedstalkers. Many TI’s call it ‘death by1000 paper cuts’.

Why someone becomes a target is debatable. Most believe it’s because they were whistleblowers and/or political dissidents (they sign petitions, attend rally’s,etc.). Other TI’s believe the targetingstarted for other reasons, but all agree that their lives are not their ownanymore. In many cases, the TI’s familyis involved in the gas lighting/targeting, leaving them with no emotionalsupport. Many are driven tohomelessness. Most are labeled bipolaror schizophrenic and forced into that system in order to survive.

One example of how the target is made aware that they’rebeing followed and watched is, they’ll be in the grocery store waiting to payfor their groceries, and the they’ll overhear a conversation between the peoplebehind or near them that makes direct references to a private conversation theyhad while in their home, or a direct reference to something they did while inprivate. It isn’t just once: it happens nearly constantly. Another example is that they will notice thatvehicle traffic increases dramatically in their neighborhood that doesn’tfollow the normal commute rushes. Another is that people begin treating the target very rudely, for noapparent reason.

I’m not sure why I felt compelled to leave you thiscomment. I guess I feel a moralobligation to the others like me that have been forced into a life they don’tdeserve, to try and educate others about this desecration of human rights. One TI said, “If I’ve done somethingillegal, arrest me!”

If you don’t believe me (and I won’t be surprised, or blameyou if you don’t), do an online search of psychological manipulation, targetedindividuals (they are virtually all over the world), gang stalking, JamesWalbert, Bob Boyce. Then do a quickreview of the National Defense Authorization Act, and the Patriot Act. Both of these laws have basically wiped outthe Bill of Rights.

Most TI’s are not quitters. There are a few groups that have formed for support and validation ofwhat’s happening to them. But there aremany that have not been able to find any support, and have ended their livesbecause they couldn’t bear the isolation, degradation and invalidationanymore. Please, research a little. And if you find a grain of truth in what I’vesaid, please spread the word. It couldbe someone you love that it happens to next.

This is such a good question, and I was just wondering about this: “it is odd that all psychiatrists are medical doctors. What are they doing that is medical?”

It does seem that the only medical aspect of most psychiatrists’ jobs is prescribing drugs.

I read research and hear people’s experiences that seem to indicate that psychiatric issues such as mood and attention disorders are related to physical conditions impacting digestion, the immune system, and other systems in the body. Some people report depression lifting when on a gluten free diet. Studies show a relationship between inflammatory cytokines and psych conditions including depression and autism.

Yet, mainstream medicine still seems to see the brain as a metal machine which needs only proper construction and electricity to run.

And that is such a good point that people state that vaccines must not cause autism since vaccines apparently don’t cause all autism.

The label “autism” is indeed based on behavior, not causation nor biological tests. It is useful to have this label, because basically a lot of people notice this constellation of symptoms and need a name to call it, need to make sense and find commonalities with others afflicted by the same symptoms. But most likely there are various causes of autism.

It’s crazy how this label is used. We are told, “We have no idea what causes autism and how to treat it medically, and there is no cure. The only thing we know for sure is that it is not caused by vaccines!”

And, yes, the vaccine court rules against almost all cases of autism, even though they sometimes rule in favor of autistic children with inflammation of the brain or other conditions if the underlying medical condition (not autism) is the basis for the claim.

We in the autism and vaccine injury community often bemoan the fact that investigative reporters are generally not investigating the link between vaccines and autism, and the serious problems with our vaccine program. The CDC and pharma hand out blinders which apparently work very well on all but a few who have personally witnessed vaccine injuries – blinders that cause people to believe, “Science has thoroughly disproven the alleged link between vaccines and autism.” On the contrary, science has not disproven this link, and much science supports such a link.

You are probably already familiar with all of these, but just in case they are of interest:

Bailey Banks decision. Bailey was awarded compensation for a vaccine injury based on ADEM, a condition where antibodies attack the nervous system. He has the hallmarks of autism: perseverative behaviors, and impaired communication, social skills, and pretend play. His neurologist said that he would have diagnosed him with autism except that a cause was known (as if part of the definition of autism is unknown cause). The doctor on the govt/pharma defense side said that Bailey is autistic.http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/Abell.BANKS.02-0738V.pdf

Stumbled across your blog and find your post interesting and controversial!
I’m one of those people with a mental illness you are referring to. *smiling* What we have in common is our belief that medication is prescribed way too often! You take 1 medication to counteract another.
….Paula x

There is no biological or blood test to ascertain the presence or absence of a “mental illness” as there is for real legitimate physical disease or illness. If such a test could exist, then it would cease to be
“mental illness” and be a symptom of a bodily disease.

“Psychiatrists” are not medical doctors by any stretch of the imagination…Modern Medical Science doesn’t recognize them as such. In fact, the tools and tests in medical science don’t work when applied to the pseudo-science used in “psychiatry.”

“It takes one person to have a real illness such as cancer, diabetes, etc., it takes two people to have a “mental illness.”

Real disease is discovered, “mental illness” is invented. Fictional disorders are voted into existence by a panel of “psychiatrists,” then given billing codes that go out to insurance companies to pay for the drugs.

The “patient” is a creation. They are labeled as such and if they believe the “psychiatrist,” they willingly become one.

This pseudo-science is a crime and weapon used against humanity.
Trusting a shrink is tantamount to calling a t.v. repair man to come to your home because you don’t prefer the programming on prime time television.

Do you deny the existence of all diseases that are subjectively diagnosed? To remain true to your argument; Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lyme Disease, Some forms of epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Autism, Mental Retardation, Dyslexia, Myopia, Migraines, Headaches (almost all types), Presbycusis, Anosmia… Just to name a few… Are all subjectively diagnosed because reliable objectively verifiable protocols do not exist– some do postmortem. You cannot negate the existence of a disorder/disease just because there is no objective test. This kind of rhetoric is very damaging for people suffering from real disorders and it perpetuates the wrongful stigmas surrounding mental health disorders.

Dave,
You’re simply putting names to dis-eases in an effort to categorize the end result of the same proximal beginning. Sure, the result of the conditions exists, but merely as a healing crisis instituted by the body due to an unbalanced metabolism brought on by toxic poisoning and a lack of nutrition which builds cellular immunity. The same can be said for all dis-eases, including mental disorders, which are the end result of the same thing – unbalanced metabolism. Yes the chemical imbalances exist, but can not be forced with drugs which further create imbalances, but only healed with nutrition which allows the body work properly. Basically, piss in your tank and see how far you get or use common sense…

If your body can’t use the constituents of what it absorbs as a nutrient it stores it or eliminates it was a toxin. People also fail to take into account the limitations of the human nervous system. We eat a poor diet of indigestible foods way too often, stuff vitamins or pills galore into our body to force the issue of health, smoke and drink and treat ourselves in excess – basically people are filthy animals and dis-ease is the result of this lifestyle. Nothing more, nothing less, and you only see dis-ease befall other animals because of human intervention and making them live our lifestyles.

The fact that there is no objective test does in fact mean that the conditions do not exist on the premise as advertised, but do indeed exist on the premise that I just explained – as a healing condition resulting from being poisoned.

1.) Alzheimers isn’t “subjective” whatsoever. family or even strangers possess the ability to discern what may be occurring inside the person’s brain via behavior. sure, if it’s in the EARLIEST stages, such an afflicted person may be able to get help. however, that is hardly the case.

2.) Mental Retardation follows the aforementioned principle. It’s like 5% subjective & 95% “objective.” why? well, because anyone with a “functioning” brain can see that the person afflicted lacks academic receptiveness; can’t reiterate something ascertained and/or just heard via speech; nor can said person participate in “normal” social congregations because they lack the fundamental capacity to do so.

3.) migraines & headaches are a poor example. some times, though rare, they indicate a tumor/brain lesion, etc. this is SEEN through tests.

4.) it seems you missed his point entirely. all the conditions you listed have a test that is utilized to diagnose the affliction properly & treat it from there. “mental illnesses” are behavioral examination.

5.) any “mental illness” lacks a credible test. sure, in the rarest cases, someone’s depression could be related to say, a brain lesion or a traumatic brain injury. however, if this was the case, which it is sometimes, we would need a new way to diagnose.

Yeah, I mean seriously. Who are you to tell millions of people that what they’re going through just doesn’t exist? Who died and made you the king of deciding what’s real and what isn’t? That’s like saying someone who washes their hands until they bleed, because they are so deathly afraid of becoming ill is something a mentally healthy person does.That right there that I just described, is something that people with OCD may go through, and I know I have it. I may not wash my hands till they bleed, but I can’t pick out a pair of socks (which can take over 20 minutes)because i’m afraid that I will get into a car accident if I pick the wrong pair. Does that sound mentally healthy to you? Why don’t you try stepping into the shoes of someone with a mental illness and then tell me it’s not real.

Hey Jon, very interesting stuff. I have blogged on this concept from a very different angle. I write a blog or two, the main one is http://www.Healthicine.org. The concept is that our health is defined by the hierarchy of life, and the hierarchy of health, which begins with genetics and nutrition, and rises up through cells, tissues, organs, systems body, mind, spirit and community. The field of medicine stops at ‘mind’. Some alternative practitioners claim to study body mind and spirit – but their distinctions are typically as vague as the DSM.

You are right when you say mental disorders does not exist (as defined in the DSM). Diseases of the mind to exist, like Alzheimer’s, and brain tumors. But these do not appear on the DSM. I suspect that any real illness of the mind does not qualify for entry in the DSM.

The illnesses that are documented (or made up) to appear in the DSM are often diseases of the spirit (depression, manic, obsession, suicide, etc.). But our medical professions do not acknowledge that the spirit exists, so they don’t study or classify diseases of the spirit.

Some other ‘mental disorders’, can be easily seen to be diseases of the community – violence, murder, war, racism. But our medical systems stop at the mind, shy away from anything hinting of the spirit – and don’t even acknowledge that communities have healthiness – and also have diseases.

Frankly, most doctors, and certainly most doctors who treat so called ‘mental disorders’ are hardly above the superstitions cooks boiling eye of newt and finger of frog. The only real difference is that they protect their recipe not with secrecy, but with patents. And when the patent expires, so does the medicine. The patient? Nothing matters but money.

Mental disorders, as defined in the DSM, are collections of symptoms. Poorly defined, not measured objectively, and poorly organized into a group of disorders that, as you say, do not exist. Unfortunately, there is a lot of money to be made treating symptoms, and more to be made treating ‘collections of symptoms recognized by the DSM’.
I could go on and on…. I often do. If you want to discuss more, drop me a not, or check out my blog posts. You might enjoy this one: http://healthicine.org/wordpress/community-killings-medicine-decipher-columbine-sandy-hook/

No animosity intended here, but I think what the author is trying to say is not to diminish the emotional struggles and problems that people do struggle with everyday, these certainly are very real. What he is pointing out, is that these behaviors, thoughts, and troubling feelings should not be labeled as a medical condition like contracting the common cold or cancer. Btw, the one aspect of this blog that I am confused about is the inclusion of autism. I think autism is a whole other story. That certainly does obviously have a hundred percent basis on genetics, brain chemistry, or brain trauma, however as for the rest of the disorders in the DSM and those discussed in this blog, I agree with the author: they do not truly “exist” and should not be diagnosed or medicated. These are all behavioral problems. Behavior is voluntary. You choose, whether you think about it much or not, what you eat, how you act, what you do, what you say, etcetera. Certainly the way we act on a regular basis can become so routine to us that it is second nature, and when we get into the habit of acting a certain way that is distressing we get trapped in the cycle of acting the same way we are used to and that can cause major distress in our lives. People that perhaps happen to have one or two bad days in a row and slowly start to withdraw from people and stay home and watch TV alone rather than socialize will start to get used to acting this way and after awhile they will start to feel depressed. Now, in this day and age, that person will go to the doctor and be diagnosed with clinical depression and think that they have a medical condition and biological predisposition to feel this way all the time, and think that there’s nothing to do about it, and that is a downright outrage! No disorder in the DSM (again, except for autism (which definitely doesn’t belong in the DSM???)) has any biological basis. Although scientists have found loose research associating disorders with brain chemistry, you may be familiar with the expression: “causation is not correlation” (just because two things coincide doesn’t mean that one causes the other) it makes much more sense to think about disorders this way. They have no basis in biology or genetics. Behavior is voluntary. When a person gets into a cycle of acting a certain way that causes problems and distress, the only way to solve this problem is to correct their behavior just as voluntarily as they started it. If a person with ADHD is too hyper, all they have to do is calm down a little (not take Ritalin!! That damages their brain and causes a whole new set of problems). If somebody starts acting out odd patterns diagnosed as OCD, all they have to do is decide, ‘well, these rituals are getting in the way of my life, I am going to stop’. Behavior is completely voluntary, so it only makes sense to say that any error in behavior can only be solved by the individual altering their behavior back to normal. If a person gets depressed and starts staying home all the time, they need to make the hard step and call up their friends one night out of the blue and start socializing again and they’ll be fine in no time! Instead, people are diagnosed with disorders and hospitalized, made to feel as a victim rather than (no offense) but the cause of their own problem, and by doing this, the psychiatric community is only hindering patients from correcting their own behaviors. It is a damn shame how many people are institutionalized in psych wards, even for life, because they’re told that they have a mental condition that is untreatable. Just like how the only person who can solve an alcoholic or drug addict’s addiction is themselves and their own will power at the end of the day, the same goes for those diagnosed with “disorders” in my opinion, and no offense to your diagnoses with depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder, but as you probably know, these problems can be corrected by your own will, you telling yourself that you have to eat regularly, and taking behavioral steps to decrease your depression and anxiety, after all everyone feels depression and anxiety. from an evolutionary standpoint, we NEED these emotions. Everything in our body happens for a reason. depression makes us crave pleasurable activities and lets our body know that we need to start doing these good behaviors again. If you simply put a chemical in your body that artificially makes your brain feel happy again, you’re in effect cheating your bodies evolutionary defense system, and preventing yourself from solving your problem the right way, by taking your body’s advice, and altering your behavior back to normal. Same goes for anxiety. Stress is a necessary facet of life. Stress, like pain and substance P, lets us know when there’s a problem. I don’t believe that certain individuals are prone to depression and anxiety because of their brain chemistry, I believe that it’s their behavior and environment that makes them feel the way they do, and to treat these negative feelings with medicine is just counterproductive and if anything, you’re way better off at the least trying a naturopathic solution like you suggested (altering your diet and exercising). Medicine is cheating, and doctors diagnosing patients with “disorders” will only create a self-fulfilling prophecy in patients’ minds that they cannot get any better, likely making them prone to even more depression or even suicide! Think of it this way. There’s not any strong empirical evidence that actually proves that “disorders” have a biological basis, but let’s just say that they do have a biological basis. The medications we give patients will still have side effects that will mess up their brains, and think of it this way. Think of the strong influence what people understand affects people. Perception is reality. This in itself is a psychological concept that has been studied a lot. There are countries where even though an individual is experiencing extreme pain, he does not “feel” it because he is performing a spiritual ritual and believes that no harm can come to him, because he is protected by the spirits. Well that’s a bit of a stretch on my part with that analogy haha, but ok, so If a depressed person is told that they have “clinical (chronic)” depression, then they will give up. Their mind will internalize this information and result in them stopping trying to fix their problems on their own. On the other hand, if this person is told that they do not have a medical condition, they are just down on their luck, the same as anyone else, and need to start acting back to normal and doing enjoyable activities again and they will feel better in no time, at the very least, that will have the placebo effect of making the individual feel better and believe that they can do better and feel better again. All in all, I am disgusted with the state of the psychiatric community. Again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I do not believe that disorders truly “exist”. I certainly second the author on that. And btw, I have struggled with so called “disorders” even OCD myself, and after awhile I realized that I could easily fix my behavior, I didn’t need all different medications, I just told myself, ‘hey, this is getting out of hand, I’m don’t acting like this, I don’t want to “have OCD” anymore’, and I didn’t. Simple as that. By brain chemistry didn’t take over my body like a robot and force me back into having OCD, because “disorders have a purely behavioral and ‘nurture’ rather than nature-related cause. Disorders do not exist.

I agree with you Michael. And the author of this piece. Although it is not always as easy as you say to tell yourself to change. Talking through problems with a counsellor/psychologist helps. Diagnoses from a psychiatrist do not. I ‘have’ depression is very different from I ‘feel’ depressed. Groups of behaviours are not diseases, they are just behaviours that have been labelled so society can put people into ‘undesirable’.boxes.

You need to read about catatonic schizophrenia… All aspects of it. What have you to say? Schizophrenia is not an emotional or even psychological disorder. You think you have deep insights into this but you are profoundly wrong. I think the blogger has anosognosia. Read about the neurological disorder in strokes and Sz. Beliefs like this are causing people with grave medical (brain) disorders to be convicted and punished due to ignorance about how behavior is biologically impaired.

Don’t you think if curing a mental disorder was as easy as you say then nobody would have them? I would love to just stop having OCD, I know what i’m doing is rediculous and doesn’t make sense, but that doesn’t mean I can just stop having this. Same thing with any mental illness, you can’t just decide to stop having it. That’s not how it works at all. That’s like telling someone with insomnia to just get some sleep. There are cures for some mental illnesses and ways to get better, but that doesn’t make them any less real. That’s like saying, oh i’m cured of my cold, that must mean colds aren’t real.

I totally agree with you. I was a fully functioning normal person my entire childhood, however I was very shy and quiet and had few friends my whole childhood. That was just how I was. It wasn’t a medical condition.

However, at a point in my freshman year of high school, I started thinking about how I was so quiet and had few friends more and more and wishing I could be more outgoing so I could have more friends, however, never having acted any way but quiet I felt helpless and I thought I couldn’t do it. Therefore I went into a “depressed” state, and eventually I thought so much about it and became so withdrawn that I decided to stop moving altogether and withdraw completely from the world because I was so upset (almost like when the little girl in the crucible stops moving and pretends to have been possessed by a witch because she doesn’t know what to do).

Once I did this, my parents brought me to the hospital and they took me into the psychiatric ward and did a spinal tap, all kinds of test, etcetera, finally concluding after two weeks that I was in a state of ‘psychosis’ and in a ‘catatonic state’. The whole time, I was completely aware of my surroundings, it was a voluntary withdrawal. Sure, it was a very unusual thing to do and certainly a very foolish thing to do which distressed everyone around me a lot, and I regret ever doing it deeply, however, it goes to show how ‘psychiatrists’ can ‘diagnose’ conditions which do not exist.

After about a month, I decided that what I was doing was ridiculous, and I started moving again and talking and before I knew it I was trying to be more outgoing instead of just withdrawing into my mind to ponder just why oh why I had been so quiet my whole life, I was so embarrassed that I never talked to anyway how would I ever have any friends! So I came out of it and got back on track and in fact became quite the opposite of quiet within no time. This was four years ago.

Anyway, I couldn’t own up to the fact that I had done the whole thing voluntarily at first because I felt so damn ashamed that I had made my friends and family worry so much about me and send me to a hospital for two whole weeks! I was so embarrassed that I decided to keep the label of psychosis and catatonia that was given to me.

In reality, I had been completely aware of myself and surroundings and what I was doing and why for the whole month I was in that ‘state’, contrary to the ‘definition’ of a catatonic state, which in my mind probably doesn’t exist.

So, everyone was wondering just how I ended up in this state! They asked me, and again I was so ashamed, I didn’t offer an answer but just agreed when asked If I remembered anything that, ‘no not really, yeah I don’t even really remember what happened, wow, I’m glad I’m ok now.’

So my mom and the doctors racked their brains for an answer and finally concluded that my episode had resulted from ingesting prednisone, an asthma medication that happens to depress your endocrine system. Now when they first came to this conclusion I said to myself, “phew! Now I don’t have to make up an excuse” but deep down I knew I shouldn’t agree because I knew that it was all me the whole time, but the longer I let that lie grow, I knew it would get harder and harder to let them know it was a lie. So, they sent me to follow up appointments with psychiatrists, and some psychiatrists weren’t satisfied with the prednisone explanation, though my mother and primary care doctor were. This is when I started getting fed up with the whole process and starting to want to tell them what really happened.

They proceeded to submit me to a variety of tests and questionnaires, and sent me to several different therapy groups and psych wards over the next year, and over this time, I have been diagnosed with everything under the sun. Each time I related my story to a different psychologist or psychiatrist, they would ask me more and more about my childhood and relationships and habits and they saw what they wanted to see (of course, I never told any of them that I entered the so called ‘catatonic state’ for my own reason), and they diagnosed me with depression, mania, OCD, ADHD, borderline personality disorder, and even bi-polar disorder!!

I had been prescribed various medications, mostly benzos, to deal with my non-existent symptoms which the psychologists had identified from what I had told them. Eventually I finally started telling the truth, I told my mom and dad the whole story of why I did it, and I told my psychiatrist and I started telling every doctor and psychologist I had to encounter the true story, and they just looked at my record and shook their head. They didn’t believe me!

Of course it’s my fault in the first place for not confessing that it was my own intention to stop moving because I was in such distress and I realize how it must look to the doctors now that I was diagnosed with all these issues, they must have thought I was insane and delusional! Nobody believed me, and to this day, my parents still don’t believe me. They think it was either a bad reaction to prednisone or an underlying ‘disorder’.

Now me, being inside of my own mind and body, can tell you, and I really don’t care what I am diagnosed with, that I do not have a disorder. I do not have ADHD, OCD, I’m not bipolar! But it doesn’t matter what I say. A professional has diagnosed me with a disorder. Great! Ha-ha. but anyway those days have faded into the past, and I stopped seeing the doctors and all that about 2 years ago, and now I am even starting to forget the whole thing even happened it’s not something that crosses my mind on a daily basis anymore at all, but what I will never forget is that stigma of being diagnosed with a “mental” problem.

Now I think I have a good amount of experience under my belt with the psychiatric community and I do not take any shame in declaring that I do not believe in disorders as a result of my own experience. I have been to 4 psych wards. I have been poked and prodded for information by countless psychologists and been diagnosed with so many false things. And I have also seen the same thing happen to other patients around me. This year in college I am taking a psych course, and I just read the chapter on disorders, and it reminded me of how ridiculous all the disorders are.

The underlying things is this: like you said, every single shred of information on psychological disorders has been gained through asking the patient how they feel and what they think, essentially the method of “introspection” which has been looked down on in the psychological community for years.

Don’t get me wrong, the psychological field is not all bunk. The brain is an amazing organ and there is unlimited information to be learned about it but I think we have just scratched the tip of the ice berg of the mind, and it is way too early to start prescribing people medications and labeling disorders.

Disorders do not exist. I have met every type of disorder person in all the psych wards: schizophrenic, depressed, bipolar, etc. and I have realized that, like you said perfectly, yes people experience emotional stresses and go through mental issues, but each individual is different (and by the way I think that if you are even going to say that disorders exist, they are %1,000 nurture, not nature, “its correlation not causation” just because scientists have found data liking disorders to genes and brain chemistry doesn’t mean that genes cause disorders, look past the ‘scientific formula’ and think! about it for a second. disorders are issues in behavior, behavior is voluntary! Your genes do not dictate how you behave; they dictate your biological make up, but not what you do in your life and how you act).

The whole time I was diagnosed with these disorders I knew I was normal to myself, and I met so many other people who were diagnosed with this and that and they were just normal people too! Before I was diagnosed with a disorder myself, I probably would’ve had the same stigma of people with disorders as the general population does, oh he has schizophrenia? He has OCD? He’s crazy!” and I realized that all these people are no different than anyone else. There no different in brain chemistry and their genes is not what separates them from other people, the only difference is that they may act a certain type of way the is not quite normal, but that doesn’t mean there insane or that they have some sort of lifelong condition.

I’ll give a few examples. ADHD. That’s being hyper. Anyone can act hyper. Sure some people act hyper more than others. Some people are always pretty calm and others are the other extreme always excitable and always doing something, never content to sit still, but it shouldn’t be said that they “can’t sit still”. whatever way people act, its critical to realize that the way we act is voluntary and people are too judgmental of others, thinking that people are genetically predisposed (it’s basically an extension of the fundamental attribution error: BAM psych community! using your own terms against you! ha-ha) and btw I do not believe that “personality exists either, as I can tell you, being someone who used to be very shy and is now very outgoing. It is perfectly possible to change your personality, and I do not think it is anything but vain and fun, but there is no science or empirical testing that can truly be done in the field of personality or disorders. It’s all related not with brain chemistry but behavior! Depression doesn’t exist. When I used to be quiet I started thinking maybe it’s because I was depressed, then I started being outgoing and I feel much happier. People are analyzing peoples actions far too literally and trying to make a science out of something g which has no empirical basis. I believe that psychologists should certainly continue to study the chemical makeup of the brain, but they should throw out every shred of observational data of peoples behavior, burn the stupid DSM, and shut down every psych ward, every mental medicine company, and make it known throughout the psychological community that each person is an individual and labeling people with disorders is just as inhumane as labeling people by their race or gender, etcetera. You can’t read others thoughts, and therefore much of the accepted psychological theories are based on nonsense. It’s a purely observational field, yet they try to throw in some data on brain chemistry and tell you it’s a science. Nope. The entire field of psychology minus the biological studies of the brain and what parts of the brain do what is a bunch of crap. The thing is, when psychologists ask patients a question, it’s impossible to eliminate all the variables of the infinite possibilities of reasons why they might say one thing or another. We’re not studying pants or rocks here: that is science. We’re studying the human mind! The most complex thing in the known universe. Science is based on the principle that scientific laws always remain the same. And the fact that certain things always behave the same way all the time (such as gravity). Psychology for the most part is not a science at all. All the listings of disorders sound like a bunch of wishy washy bull crap. You can’t make a science out of simply observing peoples behavior! No matter how “controlled” a psychological study may seem, the results are completely up to interpretation by the studier and whatever they want to see. they will see, because the human mind and its role in peoples behavior is subject to nearly infinite variables and no two people are the same at all, everyone has had different experiences and has different thoughts, phew basically: disorders do not exist. Burn the DSM. It’s annoying to even read! Are you kidding me? Anti-social personality disorder? Someone who takes advantage of others? First of all that’s not anti-social you have to be a good people person to know how to manipulate people like that and that’s certainly now what serial killers. And then they have schizoid personality disorder: someone who is paranoid of others?? Okay that could be anyone. The sheer numbers are ridiculous, a quarter of Americans suffer from disorders… doesn’t that say something? a disorder is supposed to involve acting in a deviant matter (different from everyone else) well a quarter is barely a minority, in the USA that’s roughly 75 million people that have disorders, the more disorders that are invented by psychiatrists, the closer that “minority” of people with disorders comes to becoming the majority, at which point the definition of disorder will become an oxymoron. Btw multiple personality disorder!!! What!!! That’s just a patient looking for attention that does NOT exist. I’ll go on a limb and say that most of these disorders arise from people like myself acting a certain way for their own reason, and when questioned about it they make up an excuse or just go along with whatever the psychiatrist says so they can victimize the patient and take the blame off of the patient so they don’t feel that they way they are acting is their fault. It is really just childish. If somebody is being too hyper, they need to be told so, and they should stop being so hyper, not told oh honey its ok you have a disease called ADHD that caused by too much gluten or some bullshit! Ok take some Ritalin and you’ll stop being hyper. That makes no sense! Psychologists are in effect fixing what’s not broken, thinking too deeply in a problem that can be easily resolved. The reason that the diagnoses of ADHD are going up so much is because knowledge of it is rising and now everyone thinks they have it and it’s a self fulfilling prophecy! Nobody has ADHD, OCD, Bi Polar, etc.

Disorders do not and have never and will never exist. Observable human behavior cannot be empiricalized into a science like nature can. And it’s a waste of time, money, resources, and inhumane to diagnose so many people with medical conditions that DO NOT EXIST. I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thinks so!

Ok. Most of what you say here I agree with. But you can’t have read ALL the psychology there is out there; it’s not all bullshit, honest. You say multiple personality disorder is just an attention stunt – I disagree. I don’t believe it is a disorder, but I believe that due to horrific psychological traumas e.g. abuse, rape, terrorism, people can’t deal with these emotions so they box them off somewhere in their mind. They are left there until they are dealt with (i.e. talked through), and this leads to people, namely psychiatrists, labelling these boxed off areas, as other personalities. Really, it is just a different part of the same person, who is terrified. It’s like when you are deciding whether or not to eat that extra portion of food – one part of you says, go on, it won’t do no harm, and another part of you says, no, think of the calories! We wouldn’t say that this moral part of us is another person, it is just another part of us. I think you are being a little hard on the whole discipline of psychology, as psychology is not psychiatry. By observing behaviour and learned reactions, we can still help people with the problems and emotions they struggle with in life. By taking into account the experience of the whole, individual person, psychologists who counsel provide an invaluable service. As Thomas Szasz says (his work is excellent, he doesn’t believe in mental disorders but he believes in psychotherapy) “The person who seeks help through the healing word suffers not from an impersonal illness, like an inflamed appendix, but from a distinctively personal perplexity.” Without psychology, one could not heal with words.

It’s not fair to say that mental illness doesn’t exist just because there aren’t physical tests because the mind by its nature is intangible. I’ve experienced chronic anxiety and depression for the past 10 years and have felt what its like to start losing my mind (facing that was more frightening than facing death). It’s true that psychologists are too lax in their diagnoses – all behaviours can be labelled as something (Hyper = ADHD, Inattentive = ADD, Obsessive = OCD, Shy = Social Anxiety Unhappy = Depression, Overemotional = Borderline Personality Disorder). And psychologists write the DSM so there is incentive to make up new illnesses. But a genuine problem occurs when one of these behavioral areas stretch beyond the persons control. I wouldn’t call it a medical disorder but I know from experience they exist. I physically shake with anxiety when I think someone is judging me and I’ve been so depressed I couldn’t eat for weeks and was close to killing myself, which has been enough to realise that mental illness is all too real. You might look from the outset and think “Hell, what’s a little anxiety or feeling blue, these people just need to get a grip” but that’s clearly out of ignorance and I sincerely hope you never experience it yourself.

ADHD is so much more complexed than being hyper, it’s inability to focus on important things. You literally can’t catch thoughts, which causes you to cut into peoples conversations before you forget what you were thinking.

“Thomas Szasz [(1920 – 2012)] is… regarded by some as ‘the most controversial psychiatrist in the world.’ He displays the fearless courage to question the most fundamental tenets of the entire ‘profession’ of psychiatry.”

“There are fundamental differences between natural and (so-called) social science. In the former, the student must try to understand what ‘the thing’ — for example, oxygen, diabetes, penicillin — _is_, whereas in the latter, he or she must try to understand why the authorities say that ‘the thing’ — for example, crime, schizophrenia, psychoanalysis — is what they _say it is_.

“In natural science, in other words, language — conventional and constant — is a tool: it is the microscope revealing a landscape hidden to the naked eye; whereas in social science, language — arbitrary and inconstant — is an impediment: it is the distorting mirror reflecting familiar faces as monstrous masks.”

many people would agree whole heartedly with this article in order to validate having a legitimate anti – total disability (welfare) lifestyle.A person that has the beleif that there’s no such thing as a mental illness would also have to concede that total disability payments received ‘in the name of’ such fairt tale illnesses are not warranted and are undserved.I believe that the unbelief in mental illness begins and ends with such a notion.It’s easily argued that a person who has bipolar or attention deficit disorder doesn’t deserve to be lollygagging around on disability and being unemployed when they can be cured if treated with some kind of behavioral adjustment therapy as opposed to medication…i’m saying this moronic disbelief in mental illness was birthed by the arrogant notion that nobody is totally disabled and thusly shouldn’t be (quote)picking my pocket to feel better. (end quote)

(psychiatrists only deal with anti-depression, adhd, and add medicine they cant just give you anything) thats the only thing medical. ive been to one i was give abilify and effexor and it worked well, still does. so no they have nothing to do with medicine like a hospital doctor.

ok and about the statement that they dont exist. well i wish you experience with traumatic event. something to even cause a person like you to have sole kind of brain or mental disorder. im a bad person but only way to understand is to be there yourself and re read this and feel stupid.

Medical science does not study ‘disorders of the mind’, they only look for disorders of the ‘body’, and the ‘brain’, which they can treat with chemicals. The hierarchy of healthicine rises above the body, includes the minds, spirits and communities – none of which are actually studied by medicine.

I had a mental breakdown that resulted in me attempting suicide-twice. I was in the psychiatric unit for many weeks. Without the help of drugs that I continue to take every day to maintain sanity, and the help of therapists and Psychiatrists, I would be dead, or even worse in my opinion, left to dwell in my own mind and go insane.
“The Psychopath Test” is an evidentiary novel that proves throughout that the diagnosis of Psychopath and Sociopath do, indeed exist. The novel narrates a man’s journey as he interviews many different mentally ill criminals and finds out why they committed their heinous crimes and he diagnoses and scientifically proves them to be Psychopath or Sociopath.
SPECTS are new static images that reveal patterns of brain activity, showing a Psychiatrist specifics about behavior. Though not used often, these sort of images will greatly help with the diagnosis of mental disorders and allow Psychologists and Psychiatrists to actually see into the brain and diagnose from these scans. They also suggest that mental illness is a physical condition.
Mental illnesses exist and now there are ways to see into the brain and formally make a diagnosis without a diagnosis based purely off of behavior. We cannot ignore the feelings people feel and inner-workings of the mind. I hope that we continue to acknowledge mental illnesses-I certainly don’t want to live in a world where a Psychopath would be considered “sane.”

The brain is an organ and go wrong the same way a liver or a heart can go wrong, the reason you don’t think that these disorders are real is because you cannot see it in the same way you see someone with paralysis. And as someone who suffers from OCD you saying mental illnesses do not exist is very upsetting as it is literally crippling to be plagues with images you cannot control while never acting them out. You may argue anyone can have these thoughts, yeah they can but a healthy person can unthink these thoughts they are not plagued by them and they do not unwillingly return, it is not as if I was born with this issue it developed over time like a physical issue. I am not insane I can think for myself these thoughts just happen, and I will NEVER act them out. people with mental health issues fake it as much as paraplegics can fake being disabled. Knowing mental stability is not the same as it once was is the same as knees not working as well. Take it from me I used to think similarly about split personality disorder but until facing a mental issue myself (OCD) I now can respect this disorder as it is now believable.

You are plagued with ignorance and you not experiencing mental illness is not reason for disbelief , if people had to see evidence to believe in a God there would be no religion. And you slagging odd mental illnesses deeply upsets me, as crying at night because you think unwanted thoughts may be real is no fucking laughing manor and if you believe this then you are heartless and insensitive, you may have no respect for Scientific research or people feelings but if you was given schizophrenia you would soon realize how bigoted you are being. Unreal.

I found this compelling and also, since I am not extremely smart, a bit difficult to understand. What I did take away from it I don’t know if I should agree or disagree with. Yes, people feel sad and anxious, or what have you, but everybody feels things differently. I do agree that by generalizing these feelings and putting a label on them could possibly just create a roadblock. However, I think you are forgetting about all the people with mental disorders that have been helped by standard treatment. Maybe it is just a kind of placebo effect as you suggested, but then so what? If people were helped does it really matter by what means and if it’s factual or not? Those who don’t find the help they need through standard outlets will find alternatives that work for them. If something truly matters people tend to find a way to do something about it. Does it matter how if they get the help and support they need?

So how do you explain this?
“The team also used a relatively new technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to measure the integrity of the brains’ white matter, the long nerves called axons that connect different brain regions to each other.

Overall, there was less total brain volume—gray and white matter volume added together—and more cerebrospinal fluid volume in bipolar patients than in healthy controls,”

I would like to know what you think my brain is going through if there is no medical diagnosis of mental disorders. I have written in depth my ‘so called symptoms’ in a descriptive way. Although i do acknowledge medication for ‘psychological’ behavior is total bullshit.

Autism indeed DOES exist & should NEVER have been included in the ( Diagnosis as a Source of Money ) DSM as a so called ‘ mental illness ‘ . There are multifactorial causes for Autism of course, including environmental, vaccine induced symptoms, which are labelled as such etc, & also INCLUDING genetic causes despite what is so often spouted online to the contrary, co morbidity one example, as part of the rare genetic condition Tuberous Sclerosis complex. I know so, my relative has TSC & has Autism as part of the clinical picture due to the brain damage caused by the physical problems, the cortical tubers in the brain.
TSC can, if the tubers change / grow cause behavioural changes & worsening of these symptoms of Autism, the challenging behaviour, which can potentially be alleviated to varying degrees by removing them if possible, at the end of the day Autism & the so called ‘ mental illnesses ‘ are completely different animals.

Being a long term survivor of the psychiatric system myself who spent years being poisoned & made severely unwell by the psychotropic drugs & only recovering once I got myself off those drugs, symptoms of which were originally triggered by the psychotropic drugs in the first place prescribed to treat Toxic psychosis I developed from taking the extremely dangerous Fluoroquinolone antibiotics many years ago now, & having never experienced those symptoms again ever since, Having no problems beforehand , yet physical changes in my brain after taking them, I 100% agree that the only chemical imbalance in respect of what is classified as ‘ mental illness’ is CAUSED by the psychotropic drugs prescribed to treat it. There is NO chemical imbalance in the brain before you take those psychotropic drugs, there is NO such thing as a chemical imbalance in the brain which is responsible for so called ‘ mental illness’.

The symptoms of so called ‘ mental illness ‘ are actually caused by various things, chemicals, nutritional imbalances, iatrogenic,( caused by other drugs etc ) or are symptoms of physical disease often undiagnosed, & they can also be triggered by trauma of various types, this is often subconscious & repressed, in this case the symptoms of ‘ mental illness’ is a defence mechanism, people are often not even aware of the trauma. Psychotropic drugs are actually a BIG part of the problem, they are NOT the answer to this

I have since done many years of research into every aspect of psychiatry, & what many people actually are not aware of is the following : that as far as the chemical imbalance theory being wrong, this fact has been actually admitted by the so called ‘ science of psychiatry ‘ itself, for years

Thank you for your wonderful posts Jon. As a survivor of the psychiatric control system, I’d like to share a few thoughts.

People have real events, all sorts of abusive encounters in real life & real personal responses to these real experiences. Real perpetrators gaslight, abuse in a myriad of ways & get off scot free. Their target is supposedly without ‘credibility’.
Fictional notions of “mental illness” can be used to blame the target.
There are all sorts of problems a person can encounter in life.
Nobody asks why they’re distressed or frightened, vulnerable, angry, exhausted or traumatised, when entering a hospital. Nobody tries to find out what really happened. And their frame of reference, due to how they’ve been indoctrinated…You’re drugged, you’re locked up. It can be torturous.
Sometimes very strange things also happen, that nobody can explain & again it seems the target is blamed…

Life offers many puzzles in the arena of thought & consciousness, of various states of being. It is not easy to translate to what seems such a simple language of words.
Then there all the subjective interpretations, power plays & agendas of interpersonal relations, pressures & compound difficulties life can present.

The more a person might understand about the falsities, brainwashing, conditioning, propaganda, unsubstantiated or unverifiable beliefs, the unusual or unknown, of the complex situations in which we might find ourselves in… Well, it can make it difficult to find those who can truly relate or be trusted.
Life can offer many strange experiences & it is natural to me to have conducted personal experiments with belief, behaviour & activity to help to better understand the situation at large, learn & work out what really makes sense & the best possible courses of action.

The demand to conform to various questionable narratives, the imposition of will by those seeking personal gain. Or to deflect from their own transgressions… The lack of acceptance for the unique diversity of the complex sum of a lived experience…It can get ugly.

The drugs the psychiatrists gave me, almost killed me the last time. It’s taking a while to recover. There were no positive effects, despite all the coercion to brainwash me into believing the toxic drugs help or that psychiatry has any reasonable validity whatsoever.

It saddens me that so few realise how further damaging such can be…
I mean, the financial, media & political systems are corrupt. Religion too. Is it really not such a stretch to realise the medical & education systems are also? And so on. So much false history…
This society appears to be largely used to service the power of oligarchic agendas & beliefs that are so destructive, to everyone & the natural life of this planet.

Mental illnesses do not exist and too much investment goes into their research, too much time is wasted by doctors in treating people who believe that they are ill which should be spent helping people who ARE ill or in life threatening situations which they have absolutely no control over. Yes, feeling depressed, anxious, insecure etc is horrible and everybody feels these things to some extent but the only way a person can get over these feelings is to figure out what is making them feel like this and to sort it out. Of course it’s not easy but that’s just how it is. It’s all too tempting to see the mental illness label as a sort of security blanket to use as a cry for help or to get attention. Most of the time people have self destructive behaviours or thought patterns or outside circumstances that are causing these feelings. It is not the purpose of a doctor to sort these things out.

I have to agree with all of this I was diagnosed with all kinds of mental disorders my psychiatrist nearly put me in a grave what the drug called lamictal its all fraud my psychiatrist actually believes that dreams have meanings that he can interpret your thoughts and your dreams by how you tell him what you’re talking about the mass shootings in the United States are caused by the psychological uggs they give the people they really screw up the human brain only time you should take an antidepressant is if you’re suicidal but it still gamble go to church and believe in God and ask for help

There is a whole bunch of pure bullshit on this forum. Of course mental illness exists and its an insult to many people who have it. And many are tough as nails, leave clean, and mostly stress free lives. One individual i know who was a fantastic athlete. He got tuberculosis and out of no where got horrible OCD. After months of hell and a brain scan showing a very specific part if the brain lightened up under a brain scan a anti biotic was given. Under the advise of a psychiatrist. Within weeks the OCD was gone. This is mental illness, OCD is mental illness and it deals with glutamate, serotonin, and is not well understood. This individual was me. A schizophrenic i know in colorado is 100% normal with medicine, he lacks a specific glutamate receptor, not sure on specifics not the point. The point is he was born that way not from stress or food, or bad veggie’s. He was born that way that is mental illness. Without medicine he cant function, no vitamins, or exercise will fix that. And as for depression, some people are depressed cause their girlfriend left them, they lost someone etc. This is not the same as someone who appreciates what he has, loves his family, but is sad but cant for the life of him/her figure out why. This is a different type of depression. Yes, meds are over prescribed, and the word mental illness is thrown around but it exists.

Nothing you have provided is proof of anything. You have found truth in something you cannot find truth in.

Here, where your like-minded brethren lurk, you will hardly find a challenge to your logic, and whether or not they all sit beside you in rational thought or just cynical outcry still remains a variable of their contribution to what you call fact.

You’ve found studies, you’ve researched, and just as scientists find evidence to solidify a conclusion, you have also found evidence, or lack of, to support your conclusion.

It’s very true that there is no hard scientific evidence to prove the existence of mental disorders. But it is also true that science is never 100%. In fact, you should know, being a skeptic yourself, nothing in life is guaranteed to be true- or for that matter, real. Science, as you know, is a way to analyze our surroundings and make sense of them. It’s like religion, only it’s heavily structured in mathematics, algorithms, and physical observation. Everyday something new is being discovered, and everyday something else is being dis-proven. Naturally, as the subjective, unique, and biased individuals we are, mistakes will be made and despite so, conclusions will be drawn. What’s medicine today becomes poison tomorrow, and suddenly a person’s trust in the science that they thought was valid and true, is shaken by the simple notion that nothing but imperfection exists.

Through the lack of evidence, you have found your evidence, through imperfect science you have found ‘facts’ that can be held “true” for everyone (as you said, “objectively speaking”).
And just as a child lies through omission, you have found truth in something you could not find truth in.

Your notion that mental disorders do not exist because they have not been proven or defined by exact parameters is incredibly ignorant. You cannot find truth in the unknown- it is simply, the unknown.

Science won’t live up to your standards of solidity, simply because humans are subjective and humans are the driving force behind science. You’re relying on science in two ways- you’re relying on it to provide the truth, and reject what is untrue; in actuality science is only here to reflect what we perceive- but what we perceive is entirely subjective.

You gave yourself the easy way out- you’ve given yourself a one way street; you’re saying something doesn’t exist because there isn’t solid evidence to prove that it does exist.
-just as the world was once thought square because there wasn’t proof that it wasn’t.

For someone who thinks of himself as rational I would’ve thought you’d at least question it’s existence rather than dismiss it. To dismiss something just because you can’t see it makes you a fool.

You’re getting lost in the politics of medicine, and while I agree with you that medicine used for psychiatric care is highly questionable, your notion that mental disorders are non-existent is just as questionable. Why? because as I’ve stated, nothing you have provided is proof of anything.

You’ve provided proof of nothing- literally, information that states a lack of information.
How can you make a conclusion based on a statement of “we don’t know?”

You just practiced mindfucking…. talking out of your asshole. Of course science isn’t finished or fully caught up. You spent paragraph or sentence after sentence rambling about complete and utter horseshit. POINT BLANK mental distress is a part of being human in society. HOWEVER the distress is not chemically proven. Delusions, mood shifts, sadness, anxiety, hearing voices, believeing in spirit guides… laughable and odd…. dangerous feelings/thoughts…. all that exists but prescribing a pill does nothing but keep people where they are. Psychiatry is designed to disable a normal person. To frighten. To cause harm…. to put a sock in the mouth of someone who knows the truth and is healthy. The DSM is a real book, but it’s a book full of horseshit. You can’t possibly rely on someone you don’t even know. Go to a hospital. The psychiatrist doesn’t know anything about your life, your genetics, your patterns of thought, or potential. This is a fucking joke, ending soon.

Well this is very helpful blog for a paper I am writing. It is odd to me that people believe just because there are no official test for Mental Disorder/ Mental Illness that they simple do not exist. There are many things we do not yet know about in this world. I believe to write off Mental Disorders as nonexistent is a decision made at haste.

The idea that blood or urine samples would reveal a mental disorder is absolutely hilarious. Its like saying, “headaches cant be detected by UA or blood tests, so they aren’t real”. Honey, you are not going to find a mental (BRAIN) abnormality in unrelated body parts. However what you will find is people with anxiety disorders tend to have heightened blood pressure, skin problems, and a whole slew of other physical indicators to their disorder. As someone diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and BPD, i cant tell you that i have struggled with it since i was in pre-school. I have distinct memories of being crippled by panic and insecurity in that time of my life. I was 4. Also, there are quite a few studies conducted that have produced actual evidence of the existence of mental disorder. What makes me sick is that articles and opinions like this are so, so detrimental to those who need help. To the person looking for answers and contemplating suicide, hearing that what they struggle with is invalid is so dangerous and beyond untrue. If mental illness isn’t real, then the treatments and support aren’t necessary? Bull. That one person wishing to end their life out there now thinks that they are just more ill-equipped than before and what’s the point? If they just have to suck it up and EVERYONE actually feels hopeless all the time, they’ll think that they just are bad at handling things, and a piece of shit. Wow isn’t that just what they need? No. They need treatment and counseling. A support group. They need HELP. This article tells them that they don’t need the help they desperately DO.

You have objective anosognosia. You are not wired to be able to perceive severe mental illness. How do you explain command automatism? What is that to you? Do you just take exception to the terminology “mental illness” . I can see that…but not a denial of endogenous dysfunction of the brain due to genetics.

You forget to mention that for numerous psychiatric conditions changes in the brain are proven! And that specific medication can revert these changes. That we don’t understand much about the brain doesn’t mean psychiatric illnesses don’t exist. In far history the didn’t understand tooth ache, but they removed that aching tooth. Because they didn’t understand tooth ache, dentists were a joke?

No studies have been done. Where’s the scientific evidence. You sound like [someone who] doesn’t know how to make money properly. Do you work out? Are you getting enough healthy fats? What is your observation? Do you have good listening skills? You aren’t allowed to be a doctor if you aren’t good with people. You have to be able to tick all the boxes. A big oven awaits.

I find this extremely offensive, as someone who suffers from mental illnesses and tried to “naturally” cure it for years. It almost killed me. Don’t say such a thing doesn’t exist when it’s such a pain to live with every day. I, among many people, need medication for REAL illnesses, even if that isn’t the case for everyone. The day you experience it yourself is the only way you would remotely understand. It’s not all in our heads,it’s not made up for people to buy medication. If it weren’t for medication I wouldn’t be here today.

I completely and fully agree with you on this. It’s like the media and powerful wealthy people took advantage of this industry of psychiatry and are just using it as an excuse to make money on things they label as mental disorders. When people say it’s all in their head, you really gotta listen to those people 🙂

Then how do you explain physical changes in the body, such as low levels of serotonin in depression? If all mental illnesses don’t exist then why do many of them have recordable tangible attributes? It has been proven that the brain is physically changed when under a mental disease, everything psychological is biological. There is proof your head is just too far your own ass to acknowledge real facts vs your own opinion. There is a blood test available that indicates neurotransmitter levels. – Sincerely a Neuroscience Ph.D. and Neurology M.D. (If there’s any mental illness skeptic it should be me, my education trained me to marry evidence and disregard any kind of illness unless provided medical grade diagnosis).